BBC unveils Prince Albert's sexy oil painting of Queen Victoria

Reveals an intimate side of the demur monarch known only to her beloved consort, Prince Albert

An entire era is named for her and symbolizes uptight attitudes about sensuality.

But it turns out Queen Victoria may have had a behind-closed-doors side never seen by the 19th Century public. Imperious, unapproachable, often speaking in an aloof plural first person — as in, “We are not amused” — she gave her name to the Victorian Age, during which pregnant women went into seclusion, piano legs wore trousers and doctors did not examine female patients, instead used dolls on which women demurely pointed to the area of their symptoms.

However, Her Majesty posed for a racy portrait that Windsor Castle has kept behind closed doors for more than a century.